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UNG event to honor outstanding female students, alumnae

A view of the University of North Georgia Dahlonega campus.
- photo by Times file photo

Kaylee Martin

Updated:
March 1, 2018, 1:36 p.m.

Twenty of the University of North Georgia’s top female students from across all five campuses will be recognized at the second annual Women’s Leadership Luncheon on Sunday, March 4.

Five alumnae also will be honored, in addition to a presentation on the luncheon’s theme, “The Confident Leader: Be Bold. Be Powerful. Be You” by guest speaker and UNG alumna Ann Hammel.

Between members of the Women of UNG group under the UNG Alumni Association, the goal of this year’s luncheon is to enrich the lives of female students and show them what they can accomplish when they leave the university.

“Since this is the second year we have done the luncheon, we have added dimension this year by also recognizing five alumnae,” said Wendi Huguley, executive director of the UNG alumni association and a 1990 alumna. “By bringing in the alumnae to talk about themselves a little bit and the incredible things they have done after graduating, we hope to give our female students the inspiration that they can achieve anything they want.”

Huguley said last year faculty submitted names for a nomination process and 22 women were recognized.

“UNG hopes to continue inspiring young women in the future through academics, but also the leadership component, whether they be in the Corps of Cadets, an athlete, or any other career of choice,” she said.

Several of the alumnae to be recognized are “firsts” in their fields, such as the first woman to receive an athletic scholarship in Georgia, and the first as chair of the Georgia State Transportation Board. Others are leaders, including a former first lieutenant and platoon leader in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, one of the few female microbiologists in 1958 that could recognize malaria without the help of a computer, and even a multiaward winning artist.

“What a lot of people don’t realize is that UNG is one of the six senior military institutes in the nation, and women were able to join the Corps starting in the ’80s,” said Huguley. “We’re also the second public institute in the state, and the first public institute to grant a degree to a woman. We’ve never done anything like this (luncheon) to recognize the women of the university and their accomplishments, and they deserve to be celebrated.”